The present invention relates in general to apparatus used in connection with the commercial processing of poultry and a device utilized in the dismembering of poultry carcasses for separating them into component parts which then may be packaged separately for the market. In particular the present invention relates to a device by which the breast of a poultry carcass, such as a chicken, can be split into two parts by severing it along a line extending between the soft breastbone and the backbone.
Although complicated apparatus has been utilized for removing the various parts from a poultry carcass, including pulling the breast meat from the back and rib cage of the carcass, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,600, the most common practice of splitting in half the breast portion of a poultry carcass has been for an operator to hold the carcass by hand and push it by hand across the top of a rotating circular cutter blade. This obviously subjects the operator to the extreme hazard of exposing his hands to an unprotected cutter blade.